Urinary incontinence occurs in both men and women. Various types of incontinence are caused by different conditions and call for different treatments. For example, stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is known to be caused by at least two conditions, intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD) and hypermobility. These conditions may occur independently or in combination. In ISD, the urinary sphincter valve, located within the urethra, fails to close properly (coapt), causing urine to leak out of the urethra during stressful activity. Hypermobility is a condition in which the pelvis floor is distended, weakened or damaged, causing the bladder neck and proximal urethra to rotate and descend in response to increases in intra-abdominal pressure (for example, due to sneezing, coughing, straining, etc.). As a result, the patient's response time becomes insufficient to promote urethral closure and, consequently, the patient suffers from urine leakage and/or flow.
A popular treatment of SUI uses a surgical sling placed under the bladder neck or the mid-urethra to provide a urethral platform. Placement of the sling limits the endopelvis fascia drop. One disadvantage of prior art approaches is that certain mid-urethral sling stabilization procedures typically require incisions in addition to those made in the vaginal wall. By way of example, some procedures require abdominal incisions, while others require groin incisions.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved systems, devices and methods for treating urinary incontinence.